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The program divides its tweaks into four main sections. Toolbar, for instance, allows you to change the look of the program, perhaps hiding the status bar or using larger icons for command buttons. There's an option to turn off the Developer Tools, if you don't need them. And if other users on your PC keep changing your settings then you can prevent this, to a degree, by disabling toolbar customisations.

The Control Panel section can similarly keep people away from sensitive settings by hiding particular tabs in the Internet Options dialog.

The Restrictions section enables you to turn off IE settings or options that you don't need, or others could misuse. You're able to turn off Auto Complete, for instance, preventing IE from saving form data (a privacy problem if your PC is regularly used by several people). Or you might restrict users from enabling or disabling add-ons, so you know your chosen add-on configuration won't be changed.

And the final Settings section contains a few miscellaneous tweaks. Mostly these are about disabling particular features - accelerators, compatibility view, InPrivate Browsing, InPrivate filtering - although you are also able to tweak the program's title (the name that appears in its window title bar) and default download directory.

Verdict

If you manage a shared PC accessed by inexperienced users then Tweak IE will be particularly useful. The program makes it quick and easy to turn off and disable unwanted IE8 features, and prevent others from playing around with your custom settings.